After playing Loki, God of Mischief, in Marvel Studios’ Thor, last year’s blockbuster Marvel’s The Avengers, and returning in the role later this year for the sequel Thor: The Dark World, British actor Tom Hiddleston may be switching from villain to hero as he’s in early talks to play Eric Draven in Relativity Media’s reimagining of James O’ Barr’s gothic comic character The Crow.

Previously turned into a 1994 cult movie starring the late Brandon Lee, the concept involves a man who returns from death to get revenge on those who killed him, a movie which spawned a number of sequels. O’Barr wrote the original comic to deal with the death of his girlfriend.

This new version will be directed by Spanish filmmaker F. Javier Guttierez from a script by Cliff Dorfman (Warrior) with production planned to start in the fall depending on various factors. Ed Pressman (Pressman Film), Kevin Misher (Misher Films) are producing with Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh, Jeff Most and others.

The popular British actor pushed for the role over dinner with the producers after doing his own make-up test in London with plans to do full makeup tests before making a final decision.

Previously, Scottish actor James McAvoy was up for the role but Hiddleston is arguably a much bigger star with a huge female fanbase that could bring in a much larger audience for this version of The Crow.